SIZE OF FARMS 



267 



hauling crops and manure. Occasionally, there is a suc- 

 cessful enterprise made up of a number of such units all 

 under one direction, but usually it then becomes desirable 

 to give the man on the ground an interest in the business. 

 The customary way of doing this is to rent the farm. In 

 other words, to break it up into small farms. This is 

 usually more satisfactory, even if the farmer is a negro. 

 The great majority of southern owners find it better to 

 rent the land in areas adapted to a negro family, rather 

 than run large farms with hired labor. 



There are some exceptions. Large farms have been 

 most successful in growing sugar cane. Large nurseries 

 have an advantage over small ones, particularly in selling 

 the product. The same point applies to seed farms and 

 plant-breeding farms. Some vegetable and fruit farms are 

 able to use men in gangs at certain seasons of the year, and 

 so handle large areas. 



171. Relation of size of farm to crop yields. The 

 city man and the political economist at once ask what 

 effect the larger farms have on the food production of the 



TABLE 52. SIZE OF FARM RELATED TO CROP YIELDS. 586 

 FARMS OPERATED BY OWNERS, TOMPKINS COUNTY, NEW YORK 



1 New York, Cornell Bulletin 295, p. 425. 



